Charlotte Mason and Play

This is from the ChildlightUSA group blog, and is by a schoolteacher. This is just a snippet from The Art of Play:

"Recently I stood on the playground [a paved parking lot with no swingset or games] with a prospective parent and her comment was, 'How do the children play out here? What do they do?' As I began to tell her, she interrupted, not out of rudeness, but more out of incredulity. 'Yes, but there’s nothing out here for them to do!' As I told her of the elaborate make-believe games, complex tag games with different rules for different players, and just plain old digging in the dirt, she eyed me skeptically. 'You must work hard to plan all this for them.' It was inconceivable to her that a group of five and six year olds could conceive of their own games, organize themselves, and implement the plan without an adult directing, supervising, and managing the whole affair."